Let me read you an email.
Dear Sam,
I was browsing the web and stumbled across your post on SEO.
Great post!
I love you.
I noticed that you linked to ahrefs.com/blog/keyword-research/ on keyword research.
This article actually inspired me to write an even better article.
And by better, I mean that I made it longer. [URL]
I think it might make a good fit for your page.
Sincerely, Spam Mer
In this video, I'm going to show you how to get more replies, links and not get your emails deleted.
Stay tuned.
[music]
What's up, marketers?
Sam Oh here with Ahrefs, the SEO tool that helps you grow your search traffic, research
your competitors and dominate your niche.
Now, whether you want to get links, shares or forge new relationships, outreach is an
absolute necessity to succeed in marketing.
Another thing to note is that a "good outreach email" is completely subjective.
So what I have for you today is a compilation of what I believe to be solid outreach emails
based on my own experience receiving and sending them.
Let's get to it.
So there are 3 steps to make your outreach campaign more successful.
And they are:
Find the right email for the right person.
Send a good pitch.
And set up an effective follow-up sequence.
Now, before we tackle each step, there's one thing that can make your outreach campaign
a complete flop.
And that's sending the same generic email to everyone.
Outreach is not broadcasting.
I get that you want to get links at scale, which means that you need to send as many
emails as quickly as possible.
But the thing is that generic templates, like the overly embellished one that I showed you
in the beginning, don't work for anyone who can have a significant impact on your reach.
So rather than trying to "script" someone, try and build a relationship that goes beyond
"give me a link or share."
Alright, rant over.
Let's get into writing great outreach emails.
Step one is to find the right email address for the right person.
First, you need to identify what your goal for your outreach campaign is.
Are you prospecting for links, shares, or do you just want to build a relationship to
connect down the road?
So let's use the people at Ahrefs as an example.
If you want to get a link from our blog, then should you email me?
Absolutely not.
I handle areas like video, product education, and other random happenings as they come up.
So you should email Tim, our CMO, right? No.
He'll probably delete your email anyway and he won't feel bad about it.
The person you would want to get in touch with is the editor, the content marketing manager,
or in our case, Head of Content, which is Josh, who explicitly states that he's the
guy responsible for ensuring that every blog post we publish is epic.
Now, I won't bother getting into techniques to find someone's email address because we
already have a full video on that.
Instead, I'll link that up for you in the card.
The key takeaway here is to find the person who can help you achieve your goal.
Now, regardless of your goal for your outreach campaign, there are going to be people at
different levels of "influence."
So let's separate these people into 4 groups.
First, you have your sharks.
And these people will have huge audiences and notable achievements.
So in the marketing and entrepreneurial space, think of the Gary Vees, Seth Godins, or Elon
Musks of this world.
The next group are the big fish.
And these are people you might be able to reach with a nice email, but not so much in the
form of a template or with an initial cold pitch asking for something.
So in marketing, that might be your Brian Deans or Noah Kagans.
The third tier would be your small fish.
And these would be people who are actively promoting themselves, but their websites and overall
online presence is relatively small.
And the fourth would be spawns.
These are people who are just starting out in your industry and they'll most likely reply
to your outreach emails even if they're 100% templated.
But a link or any kind of promotion, probably won't do much for you.
Based on these 4 categories, the people that you'll likely want to reach out to are groups 2 and 3.
And the first tier of influencers might seem enticing, but it'll be tough to get their attention.
And the last group probably won't move the needle for your brand.
Okay great.
So we know the groups of people we're contacting and have a general idea of the people we should
look to contact within a company.
Which brings us to the next step, which is to write a solid pitch.
Now there are a few things that you need to seriously evaluate when creating your pitch.
The first and most important question is...
What's in it for them?
If you're going to ask for a link, what does that person want?
If you're going to ask for a joint venture of some sort, what will they get in return?
If you reach out only asking for something, then your chances of success will be slim
to none.
Let's say that you wanted to reach out to me to connect and possibly do something together
down the road.
You could quickly find that I love golf, I create videos for Ahrefs, and that I'm into
tactical marketing.
So if you pitch me something on how to get 10,000 Instagram followers, I'm not going
to be interested.
But if you pitch me something on YouTube SEO or YouTube hacks that helped your channel grow
from 0 to 100,000 subscribers, then I'd definitely be interested in taking a look.
And if it was good, I might even feature it in a future Ahrefs video, blog post, or just
spread the word with anyone else that I talk to because that's how I do.
So let's get to the email.
For subject lines, I recommend staying away from click-baity titles like "You have to
see this!"
Instead, use a subject line that describes your email, yet evokes curiosity to learn more.
So I might use "YouTube case study: 0-100k subs" or even just "New YouTube case study,"
which would definitely appeal to me.
And for the body of the email, I might write:
Hey Sam,
Long time Ahrefs user, so I've obviously seen a ton of your videos.
Was digging through your channel and noticed that you haven't covered YouTube SEO.
Seeing that you're obviously into tactical marketing, I thought I'd send you a new case
study that we used to grow a new YouTube channel from 0 to 100,000 subscribers in 8 months
(in a boring niche).
If you have a second, I'd love to get your feedback or perhaps you might have some suggestions
on making our tactics more effective.
Cheers, Sam 2.0
Even as I just wrote that, I got excited to read this case study.
And that's the kind of email that you want to send.
Something that people are excited to receive.
Now send that same pitch to Josh, and I promise you that he'll ignore you.
Now let's break this email down.
First, the email is short and clearly articulates what Mr. Moustachio is sharing with me and
why he's contacting me.
Second, the email is to the point and feeds into my passion for strategic and tactical marketing.
Third, the email doesn't have any sucking up and faking that they love my videos.
Sam 2.0 doesn't like them at all, and that's a-ok.
So don't bother with fake flattery unless you truly mean it.
Fourth, he's offering something unique.
There's not a lot of information out there on YouTube SEO that isn't a complete replica
of the next article.
Fifth, the email doesn't ask for a link, tweet, or anything other than feedback.
A small ask that can be mutually beneficial.
Now, if we alter the email slightly, we can add a sixth point.
Let's say that he featured me in the post because that's where he got some of his inspiration.
Now, this is ego bait and I'm not usually into it but since the email isn't overly praising
me, I would take it as authentic.
Now the question is...
How can you send these kinds of emails at scale? Easy.
Just use a third party tool that supports bulk sending like Buzzstream, Mailshake, or Pitch Box.
All of these tools support a feature called "merge tags."
And "merge tags" are static pieces of code that can dynamically swap in content.
The simplest merge tag that I'm sure you're familiar with is something like %first name%.
To set this up, all you need to do is open up a spreadsheet, and set your merge fields
as headings and then enter in the required cells to make each template complete and
personalized. So as you can see from my spreadsheet, I've segmented prospects as people who are active
video creators that are either a part of the software company or run a blog plus YouTube
channel in the marketing space.
Let's split-screen this spreadsheet with the original email and see how this would work
if we were to use this row.
Hey Brian,
Long time Backlinko reader, so I've obviously seen a ton of your videos.
Was digging through your channel and noticed that you have covered YouTube SEO.
Seeing that you're obviously into video marketing, I thought I'd send you a new case
study that we used to grow a new YouTube channel from 0 to 100,000 subscribers in 8 months
(in a boring niche).
If you have a second, I'd love to get your feedback or perhaps you might have some suggestions
on making our tactics more effective.
Cheers, Sam 2.0
Now two important things about this email.
First, you need to make sure that all of your merge tags make sense and are contextual.
For example, you wouldn't say something like, "Seeing that you're obviously into PPC marketing,"
because it has nothing to do with the context of what you're sending them.
And second, you don't want to say you're a long time user or reader if you're not.
Now, the final part of outreach is a follow-up.
And the keyword here is "a."
There's nothing more annoying than getting more than one follow-up email, especially if all
you're doing is just checking if they got your email.
Most mass sending tools show you whether people opened the email anyway.
Think about it like this.
If someone doesn't respond to you after the first two emails, either a.)
they're not interested, or b.) you're landing in their junk box, which is probably because
they marked your email as spam a long time ago.
But not all follow-ups are bad.
Sometimes people just haven't gotten around to your email.
Maybe they were on vacation, forgot to respond, or whatever.
So what I've found to work best is either send a friendly follow-up or just straight-up
offer more value.
Here's how I might follow-up as Sam 2.0.
Hey Sam,
Just a friendly follow-up on my 0-100k YouTube case-study.
No worries if you're too busy, I completely get it.
By the way, I just shared your video on "Video
Topic" because it was dope.
Cheers, Sam 2.0
Now, the beauty of adding some unexpected value like this is that if they want to start
the conversation, they'll likely address the initial email that you sent before.
I wouldn't say to expect it, but it's a great way to get the conversation started and to
build connections, especially with prospects that you want to continue to build a relationship with.
At that point, it's your content's job to create "wow-like" moments for your prospects.
Now, there's no one-trick pony with outreach emails.
And that's the point that I'm trying to drive home here.
There's no use leaving comments asking what I'd say for an email in your niche.
Because the answer will always be...it depends.
Yes, if you want to do email outreach at scale, then you need to use templates,
but it's important that you keep them as genuine as possible.
So when you're doing your next outreach campaign, make sure to contact the right person, talk
to them like a human being, always think about what's in it for them first, and I promise
you that your outreach campaigns will be more successful.
Now, if you found this video helpful, then make sure to like, share and subscribe.
And if you have any questions then leave a comment below and I'd be happy to jump in
and help.
So keep grinding away, stop copying people's emails from screenshots in blog posts, and
I'll see you in the next tutorial.